It has been a while since I wrote on my blog, so I thought I would right about my time racing, training and travelling over the past 5 months in South Africa, whilst enjoying my last day with family in Swellendam!

We based ourselves in Knynsa, my home town, and arrived here early November 2012. I had 3 weeks left to train for the Cape Town World Cup, SA Double Champs and the Cape Point Challenge in Fish Hoek. This is my view from our balcony, so a perfect place to stay and train!

On the 8th of December after 3 weeks of training over we headed to Fish Hoek. I really love Fish Hoek, the people and the place are amazing! Leading up to the World Cup I was doing a fair few Miller’s Runs – one of which was an all girls Miller’s and it was great to see so many girls getting out there and giving it a go.

First race was the World Cup and the competition was tough. Unfortunately as luck would have it the wind did not blow, I mean it blows everyday in Cape Town ;). The race was a 20km race going out from Miller’s towards Cape Point and then turning and heading “downwind” to Fish Hoek. Nikki Mocke won with Michele Eray second and Michelle Burn third, I placed 8th and only just over 2min behind 4th. So it was a great race between all of us! The next day was the SA Doubles Champs on the same course, but today the wind decided to show us its back! I paired up with Angie Mouden from France, thanks to Knysna Racing for making us an awesome Double Surf Ski to race in. We had a great race and lots of fun, reaching a top speed of 31km/h!!

For the next week we trained and chilled out in Fish Hoek preparing for the Cape Point Challenge, a gruelling 50km race. Race day dawned and the wind again was light but slightly from behind to start the day, once we got to the point it was going to be a head wind slog all the way home. Well done to all who managed to finish that one. Thank you Roberto from Allwave for giving me a great boat to use.

After the races we travelled back to Knysna for Christmas and some more decent base training for the upcoming season. This season Surfski Ocean Racing is taking Surfski Racing to the next level with the first Surfski World Championships in Portugal in July.

In February we once again headed to our favourite place – Fish Hoek. I got a great week’s training and it is always great to catch up with friends there. Angie Mouden came back with us to visit us and we had a fantastic time, it was great as we turned into proper tourists for a week 🙂

Now I can’t believe my time in Knysna has come to an end, for this trip anyway ;)! Training out here has been great and makes life so easy with the weather we have had! Albert from Knysna Racing is awesome and built a lovely G40 Surfski for me to use while I’ve been training out here. I have also tried and tested out the Swing Paddle Range from him and they are great paddles, I am now using the Swing LD paddle and I’m loving it!

I am sitting in Swellendam and this is our view today as we enjoy our last day with family before we fly out to the UK this evening.

We have had a great time over the past 5months – thanks to everyone who made it, all the dinners, braai’s and evenings out, you guys rock! I can’t wait to get back, but keep checking out my blog to see how things are going. It’s going to be a busy season with my first race in May in Spain!

Until next time! 🙂